Mosabber Hossain

Mosquito-borne dengue fever is taking a heavy toll on South Asian nations this year as Bangladesh grapples with record deaths and Nepal faces cases in new areas, with disease experts linking worsening outbreaks to the impacts of climate change.

Authorities in the two countries are scrambling to contain and treat the disease - which is also known as "breakbone fever" for the severe muscle and joint pains it induces. Entomologists and epidemiologists say rising temperatures and longer monsoon seasons are providing ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes.

For many years, Banolata Refractory, a brick manufacturer in northern Bangladesh, had wanted to start making environmentally-friendly bricks and cut its carbon emissions, but it lacked the funding to build a greener and cleaner kiln.

That changed in early 2020 when the company discovered that Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank, was offering low-interest loans for sustainable and green projects.

Phul Kumari has picked tea in northeastern Bangladesh for three decades, but the 45-year-old says she has never experienced heat and drought like that during this harvest season.

"It's too hot and I can't continue working," she said, as she took a break for water at the tea estate where she labours in Sreemangal, south of the city of Sylhet.

When Shefali Akter first sought a job at a garment factory near Bangladesh's capital, the crowding, heavy workload and poor salary led the 19-year-old to resign after a year and return to her rural home in northern Bangladesh.

But when she came back to the garment factory region west of Dhaka with her new husband a few years later, she found conditions at some factories had dramatically changed for the better.

For decades, Shafiqul Islam Babu grew rice on his land in northwest Bangladesh - until climate change made rainfall more erratic and overused groundwater began drying up in the mid-2000s.

As his rice harvest declined, so did his earnings.

In response, the 45-year-old farmer decided to grow cabbage on his land - a high-value crop that uses less water than rice, has plenty of buyers, and provides him with a steady income.

When Shefali Khatun separated from her husband, her biggest worry was how she would support her young son and cover all the expenses for their home in central Bangladesh - without a job.

Then she heard about a programme run by a Bangladeshi green energy initiative that teaches women to build and fix solar-power systems. She signed up, despite having no engineering background or experience in the renewable energy sector.

When Abul Kashem moved to Dhaka two years ago, after the roiling Jamuna River eroded away his home and farm in northern Bangladesh, the work he found helping grocery buyers carry their wares paid just enough to feed his family and pay his rent.

But with the government increasing fuel prices 50% in August, inflation on the rise and the economy slowing, getting by is now much harder, especially for the most vulnerable, including the capital's legions of migrants forced from their rural homes by climate change impacts.

Since the 15th century, southern Bangladesh's "Mosque City", dominated by the imposing brick Sixty Dome Mosque, has been a pilgrimage destination for pious Bangladeshis and for tourists.

"I believe if I wish something and visit the mosque, Allah will accept my wish and I'll see success in the future," said Shofik Ahamed, a university student who explored the landmark, a World Heritage Site, on his recent Eid holiday.

welve-year-old Alamin's house rested on the bank of the Ilsha river in southern Bangladesh until last year, when the surging river eroded it and the family's farmland away, forcing them to flee to a slum in Keraniganj, close to the capital Dhaka.

Now Alamin - whose father died of cancer a couple years back - works on a shipbreaking crew and his mother cooks for the workers. Together they earn just enough to feed and house  themselves and Alamin's two younger siblings, now 3 and 5.

When Cyclone Yaas slammed into her home in southwest Bangladesh in May, destroying it and sweeping away in the floodwaters the small amount of cash she had saved, Amina Begum had few options.

Efforts to recover from four previous cyclones since 2009 had depleted her resources, and her husband's death five years ago left the burden of caring for their two children solely to her.